Abstract
A finite difference model describing industrial leaching of low grade sulfide waste and efforts to test the model are reviewed. The model includes air convection, heat balance, temperature dependent mixed oxidation kinetics, and bacterial catalysis. The model is shown to have general validity, but detailed predictions of how a given waste will leach in a given dump are not possible. The model is useful at this point mainly as a guide or framework within which questions can be formulated and judgements made.
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Cathles, L.M. Predictive capabilities of a finite difference model of copper leaching in low grade industrial sulfide waste dumps. Mathematical Geology 11, 175–191 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01028964
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01028964